English-German Translation of

Verständnisfrage

Hier nochmals ein Auszug aus einem englischen Roman, in dem es u.a. um ehemalige RAF-Piloten geht.
Der Kontext:
»No wonder no one disliked him; no wonder no one was very fond of him. You could knock it back all night with
him and you knew no more about him than before the first
canfull. He must have been close before they made him adj.;
afterwards, it hurt him to admit it was raining.«
Es geht mir um den letzten Satz: Was bedeutet "He must have been close, bevor they made him adjutant …"?

There is 'to be close to' and 'to be closed about' something. Perhaps your 'close' is in error for 'closed', although this doesn't make good sense either because of the missing object. Is it possible the object (that which he must have been close to or closed about) is mentioned a few lines above the passage you posted?

At any rate, it would make sense to use verschlossen here. He was uncommunicative before they made him adjutant, and now it's even worse.

close2 /kləʊs $ kloʊs/ ●●● S1 W1 adjective (comparative closer, superlative closest )
22 unwilling to talk about something [not before noun] unwilling to tell people about something SYN secretive close about You’re very close about your work, aren’t you?
23 unwilling to spend money [not before noun] not generous
close with You won’t get a penny out of Jack – he’s very close with his money.http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/close#close__1